Whenever I see pictures of derailments, I'm always amazed that there are not more fatalities. Nobody wears seat belts on trains.

I saw a cargo train derail in Rochester NY in the early '70s. Only moving 30 mph or so in city limits and cars were leaping straight up and coming down every which way. Having seen one in process, I'm even more amazed at the low number of deaths.

8
posted on 12/01/2013 7:58:15 AM PST
by trebb
(Where in the the hell has my country gone?)

Inattention to signals, ineffective communication, distraction from text messaging and speeding were all cited as factors in the Jan. 12, 2012, crash that involved three trains and injured two people, according to a federal agency.

MADRIDA Spanish train driver was talking on his work cellphone and traveling at nearly twice the recommended speed when the train derailed on a tight curve last week, in Spain’s worst rail accident since the 1940s.

A few years ago, the MBTA in Boston had a "minor" accident. ~$3.5M in damages, but no deaths. The motor "man" was texting, IIRC. Transsexual to boot, and had taken the name, not "Chas", but "Aiden Quinn".

FWIW, employees were supposedly prohibited from carrying cellphones while on the clock. They do have their radios for emergencies and work related business.

Less than a week after one of the worst train accidents in recent U.S. history, California officials today issued a temporary order banning train operators from using cell phones on duty.

Federal transportation authorities say the engineer of a Southern California commuter train who ran a red light and slammed into a freight train last Friday — killing 25 people and injuring more than 130 others — was text-messaging on his cell phone. The engineer, Robert Sanchez, who died in the crash, never hit his brakes.

As an aside, I would very much like to see calculations regarding what the forces are at different speeds for the old and new Metro North cars at all these types of locations where there are curves. Maybe they need to rethink their rules of operation for these trains.

The Illinois Central Officially said
He’s a good engineer to be lying there dead.

(Actually, the ICRR investigation of the wreck a Vaughn, MS in 1900 scapegoated Casey Jones and whitewashed other actors. Many historians believe that Jones may have been the least culpable of those involved.)

21
posted on 12/01/2013 9:46:30 AM PST
by Lonesome in Massachussets
(Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)

Metro North is a disaster as is New Jersey transit. They simply don’t care about their customers. This morning a Metro North official bristled nastily to a reporter when he suggested that there may be more fatalities than 4. Now, of course, it looks like the reporter was right.

We narrowly missed having a daughter on the train but they decided to go back to Manhattan yesterday instead, and we were literally in the shower getting ready to take our other college aged daughter to Poughkeepsie to go back to Manhattan late this morning when we heard about it this morning - (I said this in the other thread - sorry to repeat.

So I hope your friend is accounted for and prayers for his safety your way from us.

I heard that since people were thrown from the train the rescuers need to operate on the assumption that it would have been possible for someone to have been thrown into the water since the first car was so close to the river. The odds are probably not extremely high that this happened, however since there is even a chance of it, they have to take the precaution of looking and operating as if it happened since it could have.

Thank you - God does work in mysterious ways - Guardian angels as well! (working as God’s agents, of course)

Yes - we are very grateful that this is the small problem for our daughter who still does have to get back to Manhattan for class at noon tomorrow.

It is interesting how relative things are, really. She will take the Megabus tomorrow morning, she got her ticket the minute we realized she would need one since I would imagine the Megabus is sold out now - for today almost certainly, although they may have added some buses.

It’s called “push-pull mode”. The locomotive always stays at one end and a cab car at the other. This way reversing the train at the end of the line doesn’t mean using a wye. The operator merely goes from the cab car to the locomotive or vice versa. On this part of Metro-North, the locomotive always runs at the north end of the train and the cab car at the south end.

39
posted on 12/01/2013 11:45:18 AM PST
by Publius
("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)

There are some significant curves around the Spuyten Duyvil station. Heading northbound from the station the line curves to the right while following the Harlem river, and then marks a sharp (by railroad terms) turn to the right where the line follows the Hudson River up to Albany. Speed through that set of curves would not vary dependent on what passenger equipment, unless it is bilevel (due to center of gravity), which I really doubt can get through the Park Avenue tunnels to Grand Central Terminal.
My guess is that the train went into the curve too fast.

44
posted on 12/01/2013 11:59:52 AM PST
by Fred Hayek
(The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)

What I want to know is, how did it derail. I’ve been on the Metro North plenty of times, and their conductors are far better than those on the NYC public transit system, because they provide a smoother ride.

48
posted on 12/01/2013 12:28:05 PM PST
by wastedyears
(The Ender's Game movie was a stupendous, colossal, galactic failure to me.)

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.